27th June 1941 23 year old Squadron Leader John Colin Mungo-Park relieved the pilot of the Spitfire for an offensive sweep over France. He took off from RAF Gravesend with eleven other Spitfires, refuelled at Biggin Hill before the squadron took off at 8:50pm, they headed across the English Channel.
During a sweep of the coastline over De Panne in Belgium (just north of Dunkirk) he was attacked by two formations of Messerschmitt BF109's from Luftwaffe 1/JG26 and JG2 led two very experienced pilots, Major Rolf Pingel and Major Willhelm Balthasar.
The crash was witnessed by 16 year old schoolboy Joshua Recour, who was playing tennis with his friends when they saw the Spitfire coming down followed by a trail of smoke. The Spitfire hit the ground and Joshua and his friends got on their bicycles and headed towards the crash site, when they arrived they noticed the dead pilot lying beside the aircraft wreckage.
9th July 1941 Squadron Leader John Colin Mungo-Park was posthumously awarded a bar to his already awarded DFC medal. At a later date he would be buried at Adinkerke in Belgium.
Pictures from Aircrews Remembered